Sea snake victim Harry Evans' final hours

Harry Evans died from a sea snake bite last Thursday.

Days after her son became the first person to die of a sea snake bite in Australia, the mum of Harry Evans has spoken about her final conversation with the 23-year-old.

Evans died hours after he was bitten by the reptile, while pulling up a net off Groote Eylandt, 650km from Darwin.

Speaking from her home in south England, Evans' mum Sharon told The Sun her boy was "having the time of his life" working on the fishing trawler.

"I got a call first thing on Thursday morning from the skipper of the boat and I knew something was wrong," she said.

"As far as we know they were pulling in the nets and a water snake was caught up in them and Harry was stood in the wrong place at the wrong time.

"They thought it was a scratch at first and sent him down below.

"When people are bitten by a snake they are usually sick but that didn't happen to Harry. He didn't show any signs of being ill."

Evans said her son went to have a shower and put some antiseptic on the bite but quickly started to lose consciousness.

"He never made a fuss or a big deal out of it," she said.

"Then his eyes rolled and he drifted in and out of consciousness for a while and fell asleep."

"They were four hours from land and there were other boats in the area and they rushed to help but there was very little that anyone could do".